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Monday, January 25, 2010

Our bud over at MudvilleGazette has his puzzler puzzl'n over the CINC's professional "challenges."

Via JWF - I found something that just might trump his entry. You can forgive a Chicago politician from a Community Organizer background for not being too comfortable around military types.

But, this?

The president announced his proposal at Graham Road Elementary School, a low-income, high-achieving school where 80 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Five years ago, the school adopted a turnaround strategy of student assessments, teacher evaluations, and other steps to improve test scores. The result was that in 2008, all sixth-graders met Virginia’s reading standards and 96 percent met the state’s math requirements, according to the White House.

“We’re going to raise the bar for all our students,’’ Obama said at the school. “And we’ll reward success and replicate it across the country.’’

Dude - that's a 6th grad classroom. Horrible visuals. Not impressed - to use a teleprompter in that room you have to look at the bottom of the ceiling at the far end when you speak. Did the "C" team set this up?

28 comments:

Grumpy Old Ham
said...

The Teleprompter Messiah *does* have an image to maintain, you know. Besides, how else are the children (think of the children!) supposed to develop the correct reverence for Dear Leader if he doesn't have all that flashy, power-hogging (think of the children!) equipment there?

Do posts like this one, and the one mocking his salute, really serve any purpose other than to run the guy down? I expect to see this sort of thing on a political blog, but this is a military blog and the man is the CINC. Stick to substance, Phib, it's what you're good at.

Mr. X,Read my post with a little more nuance. I am putting his Staff on report - not CINC actual.

It is the role of a Staff to ensure the details, messaging and stagecraft for their boss not only puts him in the best light - but also that of the organization/service/nation he represents. This is another in a long line of examples (gate crashers et al) of the failure of the CINC's Staff.

Ultimately the CINC is responsible for who he hires - but he does not have time for detailed hiring and firing of worker level personnel. Then again, his Chief of Staff should be filling such positions with the most qualified, not the most connected. When you sub-optimize your Staff due to poor selection criteria - you get this.

The CINC needs to Cowboy Up and tell his COS to tell the right person to unfrak things.

Hate him or love him - but Reagan and Don Regan would not have put up with amateur hour 1-yr in office. The Office of the President is greater than one man .... it needs to be treated as such. Silence is approval - and I do not approve of his staff's performance on staging and positioning their boss. I actually wish that the CINC looked, well, Presidential every time he is in front of the camera. He represents the USA as long as he is in office. I am actually asking that his Staff make President Obama look outstanding at ever occasion - in every venue. They are not, and are dorking it up on a regular basis. I am actually on President Obama's side here. Tough love and all.

If you had a bugger sticking out of your nose, I am the kind of person that will tell you - as opposed to thinking to myself "Ohhh, that is icky ... but I don't want to hurt his feelings, so I won't say anything."

'phib, there's not much his staff can do about the fact that he can't give 5 minutes of remarks without TOTUS.

I've known tons of people from all walks of life that can get up and talk for 30 minutes without notes, and make it interesting. Generally, they speak about something they know well, or care deeply about.

Why is it that our current president, whom we have been told over and over again has such great rhetorical powers, can't give 5 minutes of prepared remarks without having a teleprompter?

Is his staff sucking wind? Yep. This is small evidence of it, see also the terrible selections for the White House flickr page, and a myriad of other small tells.

I'm somewhat surprised, since during the campaign, his folks did a pretty damn good job of managing the brand. Maybe Plouffe coming back will help some of this. But in the meantime, the fault for this sloppy work is still with Obama.

Hey, so what if his staff is incompetent. I bet they have off the chart diversity levels to brag about and that has to count for something. Oh wait a second, I forgot diversity doesn't count for jack if you can't get the job done.

Funny your comment about Reagan. I was thinking as I scrolled through these comments about Peggy Noonan. She wrote once about going back to help out GHW Bush. After the meeting he asked her if she needed a ride to the airport. She said yes, she was going to call a cab. "No, no" says the Pres, "I'll have someone drive you over to National." 40 minutes later the car still hadn't shown up. Her comment was along the lines of "great guy, but under the previous adminstration people would have been fired by now"

The President needs to have someone knock some heads together. This pic just make him look silly.

Don't disagree with any of your assessment...but...some of us would like to know when, if ever, The Teleprompter Messiah is going to stop campaigning and start governing. After the Massachusetts Massacre last week, it sure looks like they're going back to all-out campaigning...

Not immediately apparent is the amount of photographer's gear to obtain this image. Look at the shadows on the wall behind the American Flag and the electrical socket on the upper right wall. Multiple flashes were set up, and likely not the typical master - slave speed lights. Some advance man moved ceiling panels to run power cords to the flash units.There's even some power cords running out the classroom door.Power to TOTUS was run along the floor and taped over using gaffers tape.Was POTUS using speaker monitors so he could hear himself?

The photographer took this image but should have zoomed-in or cropped out the extraneous gear, not to mention the guy in back with the blue tie and anxious eyes.

You are correct, Phib! Poor execution by the team and a poorly released image.

"Last week, President Obama announced his intention of a 'grades tax' to give a boost to the lower-level students, The President said that the lavish grades many honor students are expected to announce were "obscene."

5th Grade insiders have been very vocal about what they see as inequities in the grades tax. During a conference call announcing the students' mid-term grades, honor student Jamie Dimon criticised the grades tax for making honor students pay for the poor grades of the dentention hall and the remedial reading and homework group."

Student President Billy Noonan said, "It's not a good use of the president's time to demonize honor students or high acheivers or any other above average students in order to give extra credit to non-achievers".

Heck, if you want to be picky - DNA wise, he is as "white" as he is African. He was raised by "white" people and was raised in a Asian influenced culture in Hawaii and Indonesia. When not there, he was in the "white" Midwest.

If you want to look at it that way Andre, the President is "white" and then it is a tie (nature vs. nurture) between Asian and African. If you define "black" as in Americans who descend from former slaves - than there is nothing even remotely "black" about the President - his father came from Muslim Kenyan tribes who in the past actually traded in slaves themselves. You cannot "acquire" ethnicity by marriage - if you could than I am not "white" either.

You can play that game if you want Andre - but I would prefer that we just refer to the President as "American" and evaluate the man by his actions and policies. Well, that is what we do here.